Feet
by trombob
Summary: Toph has hurt her feet in a battle against the Fire Nation girls.  Can Sokka make them feel better?  Part of the Tokka 100 challenge!  Read and review!


Tokka 049: Feet

Toph sat on the seal skin sleeping bag and pouted. Never has she felt so useless and so much of a burden. She tried wiggling her toes but that just resulted in a piercing pain that made her jolt and suppress a tear. She had Appa's side to support her back, and had her arms folded as to tell the world that she was not in the mood to talk. This was one of the few times she wished she could see for a while just so she could see her face. The frown she had took a lot of effort to keep going, and she thought that it must even be able to frighten a platypus bear. She would also like to see the severity of her wounds, since cuts and bandages impeded her to sense vibrations through the ground to her feet. It is due to that that she didn't notice when Sokka popped up from her right.

"Hi there Toph!" he exclaimed at the top of his lungs while waving a unseen hand to her. His sudden appearance had made her jump up only to fall back down again on her knees and hands, wincing in pain, letting out a muffled scream.

"SOKKA YOU JERK!" she bellowed with her face hidden behind her bangs. "Don't scare me like that!"

"My bad" the tactless warrior declared. "I forgot that you were hurt and that you couldn't sense me approaching"

"If you really forgot that," Toph began while crawling back to the sleeping bag and placing her head next to Appa's side again. "Then why did you think you could manage to sneak up on me this time?"

Sokka closed his eyes and forced a smile and chuckle while placing his right hand behind his head "Heh, heh, I see your head wasn't hurt in our last skirmish" he said as a joke which he immediately regretted. It triggered Toph's memories from their last battle against the Fire Nation girls, the fight that caused Toph this miserable pain.

"I am so sorry Toph; I didn't mean to remind you of that incid…"

"You did it anyways Sokka" Toph snapped, making Sokka cringe. She only called him Sokka in moments of trouble or emotional discharge, and unfortunately for him, it seemed to be both of these that very minute. "And it's not like I can ignore it either, seeing as I cant see in the current situation…"

Sokka could swear that he could see in her pale green blind eyes the whole fight reenacted, tormenting her very psyche. He remembered very well what had happened, and while he was left unharmed, he too couldn't just ignore it.

_They had camped by the edge of a forest on their way to Aang's mini vacation, which Sokka himself thought was a waste of time. Katara and Aang were practicing water bending by a small pond further into the forest, while Sokka was gathering fire wood for the dinner later that night, while Toph was having some fun with Momo by making him run an obstacle course that she had earth bended in the desert on the edge of the forest. Sokka was looking at her giggling to herself while "watching" Momo run and fly through hoops and turns made of rock, constantly changing in order to keep it more challenging. Sokka liked seeing her giggle, especially when it wasn't at his expense. He bent down just that moment to pick up a twig when a surging heat was felt above his head. He looked up quickly to the side and saw a tree burning up its bark. Turning his head 180 degrees he saw what he feared was the source, which was a lethal trio of murderous females stationed on top of a hill that made up the middle of the clearing they were camping at. Azula was standing all high and mighty while blowing out the smoke from her recently fired finger, with her cohorts Ty Lee and Mai at her side. _

_Sokka had barely a chance to sound the alarm before a series of daggers were thrown at him, hitting the fire wood he had collected when he tossed them in the air in panic. Toph seemed to have sensed Sokka's horror through the ground and by his screams, so she hurled a boulder from Momo's obstacle course and sent it flying through the edge of the forest against the general direction of the girls. Ty Lee and Mai jump out of the way while Azula blows the boulder up covering herself with dust and debris. By this time Toph has run over to the camp site and begun sending shockwaves throughout the ground to wherever she felt the girls' vibrations, only too narrowly miss each time. Sokka had thanks to Toph's involvement gotten a hold of his club and boomerang, and began contributing to the battle. A quick throw of his boomerang was sent towards Ty Lee which made her divert her intended blows on Toph's back and jump over head. At that moment Mai just propelled a two daggers aimed at Sokka, which he just managed to deflect with his club, but the force made him fall back and hit the burning tree. While trying to recuperate and bring balance to himself once more, Sokka felt a hot grip around his throat and was pushed down with Azula bent over him, sparks flying from her right fingers._

"_I have noticed you enjoy warm meals water tribe peasant, so how about I offer you a real sizzling dish?" she smiled coldly while her fingers began to increase in light and sparks, and Sokka closed his eyes and thought he was done for. _

_Then his throat was free again. _

_He opened his eyes and saw a slanted earth pillar sticking out of the ground to his right and reaching over to the area where Azula had bent over. He looked to his left and saw Azula on one knee and a trickle of blood dripping from a newly cut lip. The villainous smile she adorned her wretched face was replaced by one of intense rage. Having totally forgotten Sokka she began hurling fire balls at Toph, who only just managed to raise an earth wall to protect herself. But while she focused on defending herself from Azula, she left her back open to Mai, who just threw five stilettos at her. Sokka saw this and shouted to Toph to look out, but was quickly silenced by Ty Lee who just gave him numerous quick beatings to his back and shoulders, making him collapse due to her pressure point manipulation. _

_His warning was still heard by Toph though, and she jumped to the right in order to avoid the stilettos. Unfortunately, two of them hit her feet._

_Toph tumbled down to her side and rolled around from the sudden drop and screamed. She couldn't see the horrible sight of the long steel pins impaled on each foot, but oh by the power of earth bending did she feel it. She lay on the ground weak, trembling and shaking, tears flooding in her eyes. Sokka could just lie there on the ground, witnessing the horrible scene of their newest family member, cursing the blade wielding witch and her friends. _

_Just when Azula walked up to Toph, ready to give her the final blow, a strong gust of wind pushed her away, while a water whip disarmed Mai's daggers she was holding. Ty Lee wasn't targeted but she ran to help Azula, who was now even more furious than thought possible. In front of the trio were Aang and Katara, who seem to have finally noticed the commotion and come to the aide. Mai's throwing hand was stinging from the whip, thus rending her self useless in the current situation, and due to Ty Lee moving to help Azula, they no longer had Sokka as a hostage, thus Azula decided that it was best to retreat for the time being. She erupted in flames that she used as cover and fled with her allies of into the forest. _

Sokka remembered it very clearly.

"But Katara has been doing a good job with the healing sessions though right?" Sokka asked Toph sympathetically now that he was back in the present. "I mean, the bleeding stopped soon and the scars are starting to cover up. It hasn't even gotten infected."

Toph just sat there with her pouting frown and glared into nothingness. Sokka has never lost his sight before, so he could impossibly relate to her problem, especially since she has currently lost the one thing that allowed her to keep in touch with the world. Sokka went and took an extra sleeping bag and placed it next to Toph and sat down. She immediately scooted away from him until she felt Appa's back leg. Sokka looked at her trying to avoid his presence and contact, which alone made him depressed.

"Say Toph… I… I wanted to thank you for helping me out back there. I probably… (No, swallow your pride) no, I don't think I could have managed it myself. You really saved my butt. I owe you one" Sokka said, mustering up all his sensitivity in an attempt to get through to Toph. Her eyebrows switched from the angry frown to a more neutral one, keeping her arched lips the same, giving her a mostly morose look.

"And I know that I can't relate to what happened to your feet. While I have been paralyzed twice before and couldn't move my body, I was still aware of my surroundings, knowing full well what was going on. But I suppose you can't see or feel anything at all right now, can you?"

She shook her head, scooting a little closer to Sokka. While she previously hadn't been in the mood to talk to anybody, Sokka's talkativeness was enough to breach her rock hard stubbornness. She actually enjoyed sharing the horrible scenario that has plagued her dreams and consciousness since it happened with the boy, since it alleviated her, even if she hasn't done any talking as of yet.

Then she felt a pain in her feet.

"Ow! Sokka! What are you doing? That hurts!" she bellowed, understanding that it was Sokka causing the pain.

"Shh, quiet Toph, I want to try something" Sokka whispered calmly as he was sitting in front of her feet, fondling her left one and removing her bandages.

"What are you trying to do, make it worse? It hurts you moron, it hurts, it hur…" Toph was whining, flailing her right foot trying to kick Sokka off, until she felt something other than pain in her feet. She wasn't sure what it was she was feeling, but it felt different.

Sokka had begun massaging her foot with both his hands, rubbing his thumbs on her heel and moving them up and down the soles of her feet, while clenching tenderly the front of her foot. He then proceeded to tickle her toes a bit which earned him a short shriek and then a quiet giggle. He felt around in the middle of the foot and sensed the scar where the stiletto had passed through. He noticed how Toph tensed when he did that, and he calmed her by petting her foot with his left hand, as to say it was ok.

He then proceeded to do the same thing with the next foot, less because of own initiative and more because of Toph's, who presented him with her right foot pressed against his face. He growled a bit at her rude behavior, but complied. Toph was much more manageable this time around, allowing him to feel through her feet fully, this time between her toes as he massaged them delicately, trying his best to make her feel better, again spending a long time on her scar, trying to make her subdue the pain. Once her tense face relaxed after his ministrations, he let got and put the bandages back on her feet. He then sat down beside her again, Toph now leaning on to his shoulder while holding her hands together.

"Why did you do that?" she asked meekly, with a hint of shyness in her voice.

"Our mother used to do that whenever we hurt ourselves, be it a bruise or a scratch. I'm not sure if it does anything at all, but I was just happy there was someone who would put their time in and care for me. Because I can relate to anyone getting hurt, since I have been doing it professionally all my life"

Toph giggled at his little joke, smiling for the first time in a while. She then extended her arms and embraced his waist, tugging at him tightly.

"Thanks for caring" she said, twiddling her toes despite the pain.


End file.
